“Oh, Kate’s living it up to this day on other people’s money. Think about it. Living in Daddy’s house. Never worked a day in her life. You should really confront her. Tell her you know what she did. How you feel about it. What you think of her. It won’t bring Lucas back, but at least you’ll be calling her on her bullshit. Somebody ought to.”
“She’d never agree to it,” Tim said. “Kate knows I hate her guts. She’d never sit down with me to discuss this.”
Aubrey nodded. “I hear you. Kate is very good at avoiding unpleasantness. If you want, I could act as a go-between and see if I can arrange a meeting.”
“You’d do that?” Tim asked.
“Yes, but on one condition. That you don’t tell Jenny. I had no idea she never told you, or I wouldn’t’ve opened my mouth. If you confront her now, she’ll figure out it came from me, and that could ruin our friendship.”
“All right, if you insist. I won’t say anything to Jenny.”
Lying awake that night thinking about logistics, Aubrey had a brainstorm. Her biggest worry was that Tim Healy didn’t have the balls to commit actual murder. Aubrey could imagine a scenario where she got the two of them together, and they traded a few choice words and agreed never to cross each other’s paths again. She wasn’t going to all this trouble to arrange a polite spat. The idea was, get Tim worked up into such a rage that he actually killed Kate. That might require an extra push, a bit of stage management to trigger his temper. If Aubrey could arrange the meeting to happen at the old railroad bridge, the very place where his beloved cousin died, Tim would be primed for violence. Getting them to the bridge was key. If anybody found out she arranged the meeting, Aubrey would say she was trying to help two old friends work out their differences. Nobody would fault her for that.
On Thursday, Aubrey dialed Kate’s cell repeatedly to try to set up the meeting, but got no answer. When Aubrey couldn’t get Ethan on the phone either, and when he didn’t come home for dinner Thursday night, she knew that the two of them were together doing their filthy business.
Aubrey fed the kids and cleaned up dinner. She kicked Ethan’s nasty cat out of the house for the night. She watched Friends on Netflix with Lilly, and pretended to laugh whenever the laugh track came on. But by the time all three kids were in bed, Aubrey still hadn’t heard back. Was Kate going to avoid her forever, escape punishment by the simple expedient of not answering the phone? It was intolerable. Aubrey sat at the kitchen island and, instead of drinking her usual herbal tea before bed, polished off an entire bottle of sauvignon blanc. See what you’re doing to me, she thought, drinking alone, which I never do! They were ruining her life. Around two o’clock, the bottle empty, Aubrey dialed Kate’s phone one last time, and got voicemail. But this time, she left a message.
“I can’t believe you won’t pick up my calls,” she said, through wine-sodden tears. “I always loved you, Kate. You were my idol. I know you’re sleeping with my husband. You’re probably with him right now. You never cared about me, or my kids. We’re nothing to you. You don’t have the guts to face me, do you? You’re a coward. I want to die,” Aubrey said, and hung up.
She threw the phone down on the counter, certain she’d just torpedoed her own brilliant plan. Kate would never call back now. She poured the dregs of the bottle into her glass and let the tears flow. It was three before she dragged herself to bed.
At 7 A.M., the jangle of a ring tone pulled her to consciousness. She grabbed her phone from the bedside table and was shocked to see Kate’s number. Wouldn’t you know it, that self-pitying message did the trick. Kate loved Aubrey when she was down.
“Hello?”
“It’s Kate.”
Aubrey looked at the clock. She was half an hour late getting up, her head was throbbing, and her eyes burned. “It’s seven in the morning,” she muttered.
“I know, I just—I’m calling to say you don’t need to worry. Ethan and I ended it. Just a little while ago. It’s over, for real.”
Aubrey remained silent, trying to breathe, the angry pounding of her own heart reverberating in her ears. If Kate thought she could fix things by admitting she’d spent the entire night with Aubrey’s husband and then claiming they’d ended the months-long affair in the light of the morning, she was stupider than she looked. There was no fixing this. The betrayal was too big.
“Aubrey, are you there?” Kate asked.
“Yes.”
“I know what I did was wrong, but you have to understand, I’ve been in a really weird place. Griff’s dad going to jail turned my life upside down. I see now that my own unhappiness made me act selfishly. I need to take care of me—get out of Belle River, move on from Griff, find work I care about. If I can do that, I’ll stop messing up, and stop hurting my friends. I’m sorry for what I did, Aubrey, I really am.”
Aubrey remained silent. Kate paused. “Aubrey?”
“Now is not a good time to talk. We need to meet in person.”
“What? Why?”
“So you can apologize to my face. You owe me that much,” Aubrey said.
“I already said I’m sorry. Is that really necessary?”
“Yes, Kate, it is necessary. Let’s meet tonight, before the dinner,” Aubrey said.
“The dinner, right. Ugh, I may not go to that. Things with Griff have gotten really bad. He showed up—oh, you don’t want to know. Anyway, I’m meeting my lawyer and filing for divorce this morning. There’s some money that—well, that’s beside the point. Anyway, I was thinking of leaving town for a couple of days, to give Griff a chance to clear out of the house. I’m not in the mood for celebrating.”
“We plan a party for you, and arrange our schedules to be there, and you decide to ditch us at the last minute. Really, Kate?”
If Aubrey’s plan worked, Kate would be dead by dinnertime, but Aubrey couldn’t resist needling her.
“Won’t it be awkward?” Kate said. “Given the circumstances, I mean.”
“That’s why I want to meet first, to clear the air. Just you and me, without Jenny,” Aubrey said.
Kate sighed. “If that’s what you want, fine. Tell me where.”
“I’ll text you the address for your GPS,” Aubrey said. Kate was an idiot with directions, and followed her nav blindly. She would drive right to the boat-launch lot and still not have a clue where she was.